Jacqui Lambie lauds Ceduna cashless welfare trial
Jacqui Lambie says Ceduna has “really cleaned up” since the cashless welfare card trial launched but she won’t back a national rollout unless more supports are in place.
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Jacqui Lambie has walked back support for a cashless welfare card trial national rollout unless more support services are put in place.
The Senate powerbroker says Ceduna is “going great guns” and has “really cleaned up” since its trial began in 2016 but won’t back a wider rollout, flagged by Scott Morrison in September.
“I believe the card will work if they put 110 per cent into it rather than 50 per cent,” Senator Lambie told The Advertiser after her first trip to Ceduna in three years this week.
The Tasmanian senator also called for Australia’s big four banks to find their “social conscience” and offer cashless cards to remove any stigma over the Indue cards for participants.
“The good thing about Ceduna is everybody is glad to have it,” Senator Lambie said.
But she was “disappointed” to see support services hadn’t improved more since she last visited.
More mental health services, drug rehabilitation facilities and vocational education opportunities were needed in town, she said.
A sobering up facility also needed more funding.
“There’ll be no national rollout going on today or tomorrow, I can tell you that much,” she said.
But she said the card, which quarantines 80 per cent of welfare payments so it cannot be used for alcohol, drugs or gambling, was “close” to working if more support services and any technical issues were addressed.
Last month, it was reported she would likely back a national rollout. Senator Lambie will visit the West Australian and the Queensland trials in coming months.
Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie hasn’t ruled out backing a national rollout after her first visit to Ceduna this week with Senator Lambie but will wait to see a University of Adelaide review of the trial, to be released later this year or early 2020.
“My takeaway was Ceduna is a beautiful place,” Ms Sharkie said. “I have heard from other people in the community who are not on the card that the town centre has been reinvigorated and that the foreshore is a family friendlier place now. Whether the card has been effective in transitioning people to employment, I don’t have that data yet.”
She added there were mixed views of the trial in town and the card alone was not a “panacea” for broader anti-social behaviour issues in the region.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the Government was assessing support services available to ensure they meet community needs ahead of a proposed NT and Cape York rollout, “as we would with any further roll out of the program”.
Newstart hike won’t help: Welfare minister
Meanwhile, Senator Ruston says lifting the Newstart rate will do nothing to fix problems with the country’s welfare system.
Senator Ruston is pushing back against near-universal calls to raise the dole payment, which has barely budged in more than 25 years.
“Just constantly spending more money and not getting any better result is not the right thing for us to be doing,” she told Sky News.
Instead, the minister is focusing on creating job opportunities, while helping welfare recipients with substance abuse or social isolation issues.
She sought to distance herself from recent comments in the Murray Valley Standard newspaper, where she said raising Newstart would do nothing but give drug dealers and pubs more money.
She said her remarks were in relation to addressing individual barriers to employment.
South Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Ross Womersley said: “The comments are offensive, deeply regrettable and unacceptable from a Minister in this role. They should immediately be retracted ... and she should issue an unreserved apology to all unemployed Australians”.